Memories
by cjanimal
Summary: <html><head></head>Memories. In the end, they're all we have left.</html>


"Lieutenant?"

Lieutenant Jaune Arc looked up from the scroll in his lap.

"5 mikes till the drop zone"

Jaune nodded to the man in front of him."Thank you Warrant Officer. My people will be ready."

With his words the airman walked back into the cockpit of the ship. Once again Jaune looked down at his scroll, the screen displayed a letter to his mother; he had already left a copy with the post in the event of his death but the letter still seemed... unfinished. He felt like there was something missing.

But it was too late for revisions; he had to ready his unit. Standing, Jaune grabbed a tassel for support as the airship hit a pocket of turbulence.

He looked around the dim compartment to his friends. Across from him Yang was asleep in her seat. Jaune would always wonder how she was able to sleep before an op so easily, but she would always say it helped her prepare. Blake sat beside her, as always her nose was stuck in a book.

Beside Jaune sat Pyrrah quietly staring at a piece of paper in her hand with a small smile gracing the girl's lips. She had received the document just prior to boarding the aircraft, what made her so happy was the fact that the documents stated that Pyrrha Nikos was now a naturalized citizen of Vale. She had renounced her Mistral heritage shortly after Mistral annexed the islands of Liden and started this entire conflict.

Nora, energetic as ever, was impatiently tapping her hammer on he compartment floor. Ren had spent most of the flight keeping Nora as calm as possible for fear she would jump to early and try to run the rest of the way for going to slow or something of the like.

Further down the ship near the back of the compartment sat Ruby with Weiss close at hand attempting to comfort her. Ruby never did care for the war, no matter what Jaune said to her to he could never change her mind, if it wasn't for her friend beside her Jaune feared that Ruby would have deserted long ago.

Across from them sat the final members of Jaune's unit Team CRDL. Cardin was doing the same thing as Nora, lightly tapping his Mace against the floor in anticipation of the coming battle. Beside sat his partner Russel; he sat silently, in fact he hadn't said anything more than a 'Yes Sir' or 'No Sir' since they had been briefed for the op. The boy had never been the same after he found out his parents died at Orellia.

As for Dove and Sky, the two were asleep across the way from the other two members of their team. Dove silently snoring, his head resting against his partner's shoulder.

"Team, listen up"

The others tuned to their leader's voice; the three sleeping ones' waking, instantly alert.

"I know that some of you may not want to be here" he paused for a moment, "but the situation is clear, we have been attacked, our people murdered in cold blood. I for one will not tolerate these transgressions. Ours is not a war of aggression, but a war of vengeance"

Cardin took this moment to speak up, "For Orellia!"

Nodding Jaune voiced his agreement."Yes Cardin, our purpose here is to avenge the thousands who died in Orellia. The city of Dioscurias is merely the first of many that will fall."

With his next words Jaune's voice became ice cold. "King Codrus, Queen Cassandra, Councilor Troy… We know our targets, anyone who gets in our way... dies. No exceptions."

Ruby was visibly uncomfortable by his words. Noticing this Weiss took her hand and squeezed it gently.

"Cardin, your team ready?"

Cardin nodded to his superior. "Of course, nothing will stop us."

"Lieutenant! We're about to reach the drop zone!" The pilot called from the fore.

Turning his head back to his troops."you heard him, clear the hatch!"

Jaune hit a large button near the cockpit door and the hatch in the center of the compartment opened to the visage of the Mistralian City below. Their citizens in complete ignorance of the carnage to come.

Jaune spoke one final time to his unit. "For Orellia... For Vale!"

And as one they replied "For Vale!"

Then they jumped.

* * *

><p>Jaune awoke to the sound of thunder and rain lightly peppering the car's window. Removing his forehead from the window he looked around as his mind slowly crept from the clouds of sleep.<p>

"Are you feeling better Sir?"

Jaune looked forward to the man in front of him. Occupying the driver's seat of the car was a young man in his early twenties with a clean military cut.

"I fell asleep did I?"

The man looked a bit abashed but his eyes never left the road. "Sorry Colonel, you never sleep very well around this time of year, I figured I should let you sleep as long as possible."

Jaune looked out the window staring out at the scenery passing by for but a few moments before turning back. "Thank you Daniel."

"Anytime Sir. We're almost here Sir."

"Ah, thank you." Jaune returned to looking at the world beyond the pane of glass as droplets of water traced lines on the glass.

A few minutes later they stopped before a set of ornate gates, a Valearian Eagle set into each of the gates structures.

"You can wait here Daniel, I can handle everything from here on out." Jaune explained as he reached for the door handle.

"Ah! Wait a minute Sir. Let me get that for you." Daniel struggled to get up from his seat as he had forgotten to remove the belt in his haste to help his superior.

Lightly laughing at the man's eagerness Jaune waved him off. "I'll be fine Daniel, don't make me order you."

With an embarrassed look the younger man conceded defeat. "Yes Sir."

Opening the door Jaune exited the car; leaning heavily on the cane in his right hand but not before opening the umbrella in his left.

* * *

><p>Jaune tore through the Mistrialian soldiers like a hot knife through butter. Nothing could stop him in his blind rage as he ducked under one blade while cutting out the man's legs from under him then intercepted a hail of bullets with his shield.<p>

Mistrial's infrantry men were no match for a trained Valearian Hunter, especially for one trained at the great Beacon Academy. Even Mistral's own Hunters would have been hard pressed to fight the enraged swordsman.

He screamed out in his anger as he charged another line of infantry. He slashed downwards at the leading man who intercepted the blow the force of the blow forcing the man to his knees. Before the soldier could even react Jaunes blade came crashing down once again, his fellow soldiers moving too late to surround the Valearian.

With him distracted one of the infantrywomen stabbed forward with her spear, the point stopped an inch from a mortal blow as Jaune's Aura absorbed the impact. Spinning around Jaune struck out with his shield the end colliding with the woman's head with a sharp crack, killing her instantly.

Far behind him the rest of Jaune's team fought through lines of Mistralians in an attempt to reach their leader.

They fought valiantly; Ren led them in their leader's absence, pushing forward with Nora at his side as Ruby guarded the rear with Weiss.

They had to kill dozens upon dozens of their enemies in their attempt to reach their leader. When they finally reached him he was surrounded by almost as many troops as they had all fought themselves.

They found their leader lying on the ground, a fist sized chunk of flesh missing from his right thigh, the wound bleeding profusely. But even with the grevious injury he still crawled forward in an attempt to find more of their enemy to kill, tears streaming down his blood stained face.

* * *

><p>The rain had no less lightened since he had first awoken in the car but it was still light enough that the water did nothing to impede his purpose. He walked down the brick path, along the path the grass was lush and well taken care the looks of it the grass had recently been cut, but any evidence of such act had been washed away by the rain.<p>

Taking a turn Jaune began walking in the grass, with each step his feet sunk into the water drenched soil; his boots, thankfully, repelled the enveloping liquid. He looked down, seeing the occasional bouquet of flowers in front of the stones made Jaune briefly regret not bringing flowers himself but that thought was quickly forgotten as he remembered that she never was one for flowers.

He stopped finally reaching his destination.

* * *

><p>"Captain Arc, we have incoming armor coming from the river!"<p>

Jaune ducked behind a piece of rubble as bullets rained down on their position.

"Lieutenant Rose, Xiao Long; go with the Sergeant and take out the armor, we can't allow ourselves to be flanked!"

The two girls nodded before they moved to follow the Sergeant and his squad.

"Nora, I need you to put some rounds into that window. Ren! Pyrrah! Give her covering fire!"

Following his orders Ren and Pyrrah burst out from their cover and moved to a new position, drawing the enemies' fire and returning it as they went. With the enemies distracted Nora fired a couple of grenades into the window. The resounding explosion tore the walls of the structure apart killing whoever it was that occupied the room.

"Good job Nora!" turning to the unit behind him, "Lieutenant Belladona, take Gamma and Epsilon squads west to the factory district. Eliminate the weapons facilities there, prioritize the heavy weapons. Lieutenant Schnee, take Delta and Charlie and clear that building, afterwards meet us at RV Foxtrot, we'll need you to take the enemies local command station. Get moving people the longer we wait the less likely we live to see the next sunrise."

Stepping forward Ren grasped Jaune's shoulder. "Jaune we're over extending ourselves. Our entire unit was supposed to deal with the factories."

Jaune shrugged off his friends hand and shook his head. "It doesn't matter; the force General Corhol sent to take their base is too small. He's sending them to their deaths. I will not allow my comrades to die because of the incompetence of some noble born fool who has no business leading men on the battlefield."

"Our mission is not to eliminate the enemies command structure. Our mission was to destroy their heavy weapons production in cased they failed."

"Which they will if we don't back them up, Blake and her squads are more than competent enough to take down a few factories. We can do this."

"Just let him be Ren." Jumping down from a piece of rubble Pyrrha approached her two friends. "Jaune is our leader and our friend; he has pulled us through thick and thin. I think we should put our faith in him, just as we always do."

Sighing in defeat he reluctantly nodded to his superior, "Very well, let's just get this over with."

Jaune gave his friend a small smile. "Thank you Ren. Pyrrah! How's the route?"

"All clear."

Turning to his remaining squad, "All right people, move out."

Getting to the command base was relatively easy. The building that Jaune had sent Weiss to clear was empty save for a few stragglers which she and her men quickly dispatched. With the building cleared of all hostiles Weiss and her men rejoined Jaune's unit for their attack.

The base itself was the home of the city's government offices. Given the nature of the building the structure was well enforced and its strength was evident by how little damage the building had received from the Valearian's earlier artillery strikes.

By the time they had arrived General Corhol's attack had already begun, to disastrous results. The Valearian forces were outnumbered and out gunned. Their own T-38 walkers destroyed by well placed mines and anti armor weaponry. The enemy even had a number of Hunters defending it. But they had left their north side undefended; they obviously had yet to learn of their losses taken by Arc's Unit.

"Weiss, you see that opening over there." Jaune pointed to hole that was barely larger than the window that was originally there. "Can you get me up there using your glyphs?"

"Hmph… Can I."

With a playful tone he turned to the white haired girl. "Can you?"

With a look of annoyance, "Shut it Arc."

With a small laugh he continued his statement. "After you send me up I'll give you the all clear signal, once you see that start sending everyone else up. "

Turning to his men. "Me and the Lieutenant will be going in alone, the rest of you will go support General Corhol's attack group. Try and stick to buildings for cover, the added advantage of height could also prove crucial to taking out the defenders."

With his words done he nodded to Weiss who activated her glyphs launching Jaune into the building.

Landing with a roll his head swiveled around searching for any hostiles, but the small room proved empty. Giving the all clear signal he opened the door of the room peeking out as his unit began to arrive.

"Nora, stay here and cover our escape route, Weiss and Pyrrah will go right while me and Ren will go left. If you see any officer grab them and get back for extraction ASAP, same goes for any intel."

With his orders given the group separated, as ordered, Ren following Jaune closely from behind.

"You sure it was a good idea splitting you and Pyrrah up like this. You were the best pair in our class. And no one's even come close to even scratching you since we first dropped in."

Jaune nodded in response, "Yeah I know, but as you should remember Weiss and Pyrrah fought together a number of times back in school. You on the other hand never actually fought as a -"

Jaune abruptly stopped talking as he grabbed Ren's arm and pulled him down behind an overturned desk.

Ahead a trio of Mistralian Soldiers, Hunters by the looks of their weapons, ran past them at the end of the hall. They disappeared soon after from sight and sound.

-duo with Weiss. You have fought beside her since then, but for something like this I think a bit more reliability is more important. Don't you?"

"Perhaps-"

Jaune held up his hand indicating for Ren to stop. In the room ahead of them multiple voices could be heard.

"-man Actual this is Godfather, re-route east on 43rd street and flank the Valerians hitting Gemni, How Copy?

"Godfather, Hitman Actual. Re-rout east on 43rd, Copy."

Jaune and Ren slowly crept up to the door stopping just before as he looked inside.

The room was a hive of activity as men and women ran back and forth passing information. The center of the room was occupied by a large map table surrounded by a number of officers pointing to various locations on the board. On the far side of the room lay a series of computers occupied by more soldiers relaying similar orders to what they just heard.

None of these people worried Jaune, either one of them could easily take the entire room if need be, what did have him worried was the woman leaning the far wall, sipping a mug of some kind of steaming drink as she watched over the room. Above her left breast lay the insignia of the Phoenix, the mark of a Mistralan Hunter.

Jaune turned back to the man beside him. "There's a Hunter on the far side of the room, You'll eliminate the rest of the soldiers in there while I handle the Hunter… but do try and keep one alive, the intel could be invaluable."

Ren nodded in agreement. With an indication of his Captain's hand Ren rushed into the room, his Stormflowers' roaring as the men and woman fell against his onslaught. Jaune followed Ren just behind him and jumped over the now kneeling boy extending his shield to block an incoming plasma bolt, the energy dancing across.

As Jaune sprinted past the bodies of fallen soldiers the Mistralan Hunter mecha-shifted her weapon from the rifle into a huge Battle Axe. Once again raising his shield Jaune intercepted the falling battle axe, the force of the blow causing the weapon to remain stuck.

Steeling himself he pushed back against his opponent forcing her off her feet. He slashed his blade forward in an attempt to end the battle immediately. But the woman was able to just block the shaft of her weapon, the stuck shield nearly causing the woman to fall. Pulling her weapon aside she kicked Jaune back. With the Captain out of reach the Hunter grabbed her axe attempting to lift her weapon free again but the blade remained where it was. The added weight made the Axe impossible to wield. With a roar of anger she cast the useless piece of metal aside and drew a small dagger.

With it she charged at Jaune, but her dagger was no match for Jaune's longsword. Jaune was no longer the boy who had sneaked and cheated his way into Beacon, no longer the weak child who required the aid of his partner, top of her class, just to pass his classes. Now he was a Captain in the Valerian Hunter Brigade, His strength may lie in his mind but that did not mean he had not trained his body. He slashed Crocea Mors straight past the offending dagger meeting the women's arm passing straight through her aura like butter, severing the hand from the woman's body.

Before the Hunter could even voice a sound of pain Jaune spun once and severed her head.

Jaune looked behind him as he attempted to calm his breathing, all around the room the carnage of Ren's attack was evident as pools of blood spread from the bullet ridden corpses. Ren stood over two men lying on the ground on the other side of the room, his weapon at the ready to act at even the slightest hint of resistance.

"Ren, watch the door. I'll interrogate these two." Ren nodded and moved to the door, Jaune took his place over the two terrified men.

Grabbing an overturned chair, one of the few still intact, Jaune placed it in front of the prisoners before sitting down. Taking out a cloth from one of his pockets he began to clean his blade, the blood splattering onto the prisoners face.

"Oops, Sorry about that gentlemen, it's been a busy day, but I'm sure you know that." He paused a moment as if waiting for them to respond before he continued. "Ah… but where are my manners. How has your day been? Can I get you something to drink?"

The two men stared at the grinning man unsure on how to respond.

"Nothing at all? You sure?" He took out his canteen and swished the liquid around for good measure. "It's quite good, nothing taste better than water after a serious fight. Still no? Suit yourself."

Jaune unscrewed the canteen and took a deep swig from it. The water overflowed and the excess dripped down his chin to the floor below. Wiping his mouth he replaced the canteen to his belt.

"Now that we're all good and satisfied how about we play a game. You answer my question… or I cut off every piece of your body, inch by inch until you do." He moved Crocea Mors from his lap and placed the tip on top of the ankle of one of the prisoners. "And do please answer my questions, I just cleaned this and would very much rather not do it again."

One of the soldiers looked at Jaune defiantly. "We are children of Amida, loyal to our King and our King alone. We will not bow to you Valerarian dogs, you will get noth-"

But what his words were cut off by the screams of his companion as Jaune, his eyes never leaving the talking man, pushed down and severed the other man's foot from his body."

Jaune, maintaining his attention on the braver soldier, now an annoyed look on his face once again spoke to the prisoners. "Now look what you made me do. And I just cleaned this blade too."

The soldier watched Jaune, but fear never replaced his courage. It was there but it was not overriding the man's love for his country and King. "Torture us all you want. We will never surrender to you."

The now injured prisoner only whimpered in response, but Jaune could tell by the man's silence that he agreed.

Jaune sighed, "I was afraid you'd say that. Obviously my skills just aren't enough for this"

Jaune turned around to his companion, "Hey Ren, you mind calling the Valkyrie up here. I need her expertise with these prisoners, they just aren't that cooperative."

Ren nodded and stepped into the hallway.

Jaune turned back to the prisoners, the two noticeably paled as the blood seemed to drain from their faces.

"Did you say Valkyrie?"

"Yes I did, you have heard of her I suppose."

The prisoner nodded. There were few in the Armies of Mistral that had not heard of the great Nora 'The Valkyrie of Vale'.

"I figured as much, she always has been one to make a name for herself, even back in our days at Beacon everyone knew her name. They also knew never to mess with her. But I have to say this war has been good for her, she always said she wanted to be a hunter but she never really found her calling until she interrogated her first prisoner."

Jaune looked up talking to himself, "I remember the first time, it took us weeks to get the blood stains out of her hammer, the interrogation itself lasted for days and the blood really sets in after that long making it especially hard to clean. But the worst part was the nightmares afterwards… the way she treated them, more as objects than people, I couldn't even recognize them as human beings after that. Just a mangled mass of blood and flesh."

The prisoners continued to pale even further, although Jaune didn't know how it was still possible given how their skin was almost as white as snow, particularly for the injured one.

"You two don't look so well, do you need me to call a doctor or something? We can make you all better before the she starts."

"NO!... I mean, we'll be fine. You don't need to call her here. We'll tell you everything you want to know."

"Good, first I need the password to the archive files for this room. I need troop movements, supply locations, everything. I also need the password to unlock the communication stations; one of your comrades was able to hit the panic button and locked them all down before we secured the room."

"The passwords 'Tasha' named after our King's wife."

"You sure? Because if it's wrong…"

Jaune trailed away not finishing his sentence, but by their response they knew how he was going to finish.

"No, it's the password alright. The only one we had, we never thought you would make it this far."

Jaune nodded before turning back to Ren, "Hey Ren., you mind checking their info."

Ren silently nodded as he moved from the doorway and took a seat at one of the communication screens. With a mere few strokes of the keys the room came alive, the communication screens lit up with a blaze of activity, symbols of troops both Mistral and Valearian began popping up on the map in the center of the room, even the coffee maker in the corner of the room began steaming.

"Everything checks out Jaune, we have everything."

Jaune grinned at their good luck. "Thank you Ren."

Jaune raised his blade to replace it back into its sheath but quickly shifted his grip and brought down the blade onto a prisoner severing the head from his body.

The other prisoner opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he was going to say was lost to the void as Jaune ended his life as well with a mere swipe of his sword.

Jaune quickly and quietly wiped the blood from his sword as he turned back to his friend. "Get General Corhol on the line and start giving him the location of their troops. We've lost enough people to his incompetence."

Ren began to type in commands into the work station but stopped as he spoke.

"You know that wasn't a very nice thing to say about Nora."

By his tone of voice Jaune could tell Ren was not happy.

"So I stretched the true a little, she may not even like the thought of interrogation but they didn't know that… and besides, having to listen to those stories about her dreams can be pretty torturous, do you remember the one about the 'Ursa skin rugs' back in our first year of Beacon. Even more so considering it's the same dream over and over again and she tells every single person a different tale except you."

Ren chuckled at the thought. "We still all love hearing them though."

Jaune smiled, "Yes, yes we do."

Jaune moved to step out of the room but stopped at the threshold his hand resting on the doorframe. "I'm going to go find Weiss and Pyrrha, make sure everything's all good on their end. Will you be alright here alone?"

"I'll be fine... and don't worry about Nora, I didn't actually call her up."

"I know, I didn't actually expect you to anyways." He paused a moment. "I'll be back soon"

With his final words he exited the room.

Activating the radio on his chest, "This is Knight to Amazon, Vault. I need a status report.

The voice of Weiss responded to him. "This is Vault. I just finished clearing out the West side. Nothing of importance here."

"Vault what's the status on Amazon?"

"I got separated from her thirty minutes ago; she went to clear out the southern section of the building. Help out Corhol's troops an all."

"Got it, I'm moving to reinforce her position. Vault head back to Valkyries position and have her and you move to Monk's position. The radios aren't reaching out of the building for some reason. How copy?"

"Vault is rendezvousing with Valkyrie, then reinforcing Monk's position. Copy"

With his order's received Jaune began moving south towards Pyrrha.

All the way Jaune met little resistance from the Mistralian troops. He passed many rooms that held the bodies of fallen soldiers. Their wounds characteristic of a certain woman's ever changing weapon. Some had the small bullet wounds, some wounds so hidden it almost seemed they were still alive, while others had the classic wound that came from a sword and others had the small puncture wounds that came from a spear.

Jaune kept moving steadily along past all the gruesome corpses until he came to a blown out hallway. This location was the scene of a great battle, the wall of the adjoining rooms were blown out causing the once confining hallway to become a great arena for the battle, even some portions of the floor and ceiling had collapsed.

At his feet lay a man, a puncture wound to his forehead the cause of his death, one most likely caused by a spear if his memory was correct, and it was. The man wore the uniform of a Mistralian Hunter, one of the ones who had passed Jaune and Ren earlier in fact.

Jaune knelt down beside him, a forlorn look on his face. "You know… in another lifetime we may have been friends, you look like you would be a cool person… Gods know I would never be able to pull off blue hair."

He stood up as his eyes scanned the surrounding carnage hoping, praying, to see the familiar tufts of red he came to love so much.

And his prayers were answered as he saw Pyrrha sitting on a chair in front of a blown out hole in the wall, the battle between the Mistralian Troops and General Corhol's troops in the distance, the tide of the battle now turned.

He grinned as he approached his partner. "It looks like we've won this battle. In fact Ren and I just took the intelligence room, with that info we might be able to turn the tide of this war, or at the very least ensure our favor for the next few months. Right Pyrrha? Pyrrha?

Jaune turned his eyes from the battlefield and looked down at his partner and his eyes widened in horror. Embedded in the girl's stomach was a large dagger.

Jaune knelt down beside his partner; almost fell given the speed of his descent. He gripped the hilt of the blade about to tear the blade out before he stopped his kneejerk reaction. Gripping her shoulder Jaune shook her in an attempt to wake her.

His heart soared as the girl's eyes opened, if only barely, and she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. "Jaune? Is that you?"

"I'm here Pyrrah, don't speak, save your strength. I'll get a medic here immediately you're going to be fine."

Gripping his radio "This is Knight. I have a man down, I repeat a man down. I need a medevac ASAP."

"This is Tin Man. We read you. Medevac is on its way to your location."

Jaune was going to respond but was stopped as Pyrrha gripped his arm.

"Jaune don't. It's… too late."

Jaune shook his head in defiance. "Don't talk like that… It's never too late. The Medevac will get here soon and everything is going to be fine."

"Jaune… please. If these…" She was interrupted as a series of violent coughs erupted from her lips, small droplets of blood splattering Jaune, but he paid it no mind. "If these are going to be my final moments I want them to be good ones… Normal ones. Just… just talk to me… please."

Jaune wanted to grant her request, but try as he might he couldn't bring himself to do it. "Pyrrha please. Just hang on. I…."

"JAUNE!" Pyrrha yelled, or at the very least what could be called a yell given her state. "I am dying, I don't have much time left… even I realize… this. Please, Jaune, just talk to me."

Jaune nodded, tears flowing down his face. "Ok, Ok. What do you want to talk about?"

"Nothing about the war, how… how about what you're planning on doing after the war is over."

"Well I thought about moving out of Vale, get back to my roots out on the frontier, maybe move back to Korick, so I can be closer to my sisters." He smiled at the thought but kept going. " I was thinking of getting a house there, putting all this war behind, move in, get married, have a couple of red headed daughters, maybe a boy."

Pyrrha smiled at his words, her own tears now slowly falling down as well, one by one. "Sounds nice, what else?"

"Well I would raise them beside my beautiful wife, teach them how to fight and defend themselves. Maybe have them grow to be Hunters, proper ones, who fight Grimm and not other people. Then when they had all grown up and moved away, I would spend the rest of my days beside my wife, reminiscing about the glory days. With all this war and violence behind us. Wouldn't that be nice Pyrrha? Pyrrha? Pyrrha?"

Jaune, in a panic, shook her once again, but this time he received no response. Her eyes remained close, her lips did not move to speak, her hand remaining stiff on her leg. Only the telltale smile playing across indicated her once fleeting emotions.

"No… No,no,no,no….NO! Pyrrha! Pyrrha wake up, please wake up!" Gathering her nto his arms he pulled her close, the tears not coming down in torrents. "Pyrrha please don't leave me… please don't leave me. I love you, I love you more than anything in this world. Don't leave me… please…. Oh gods…. Please don't leave me…"

But his words only reached deaf ears.

Minutes later the Bullhead would land outside the captured headquarters. But it was far too late.

* * *

><p><em>Pyrrah Nikos LT. Valearian Army <em>

_Mistralian War, Battle of Amida _

_April 7, 763 – August 17, 787 _

_Beloved Friend and Comrade._

The simple bronze plaque was set into the base of a beautiful marble statue. It was quite ornate featuring a young woman with a spear and shield, the likeness was staggering. At least to anyone who didn't know her. To Jaune it was merely a monument to his failure, a reminder of all he lost. To him it was a grotesque mockery of the beauty and grace that Pyrrha once held. He knelt down onto the grass, ignoring the water seeping into his pants.

Jaune looked behind him, drawn by the sound of the wet grass squishing beneath a person's feet.

"Ruby."

The girl smiled at him, even if it was but a slight one. "Hello Jaune. It's been awhile."

Jaune did not smile back, only nodded in response her words. Turning back to the gravestone Jaune remained silent, in an almost vigil over the marble.

Ruby wrung her hands nervously, unsure how to comfort her friend. "I would have thought your wife would have been here with you."

Jaune looked up from where he knelt and frowned at her words, "She wanted to come, but she had an important meeting at work she couldn't reschedule. We are going to come back tomorrow so she can pay her respects but I... I had to come today."

Ruby nodded at his words. "I can understand, she was always one to put work first. Blake and Yang send their love."

"Ah, how are they doing?"

She smiled as she thought, glad that she was able to change the subject onto a happier note. "Blake is doing well in her position in the Faunus Relations Comittee. As for Yang, she actually opened a night club recently. She's new but her place is becoming more popular by the night."

"That's good to hear"

"Since we're on the topic of far away friends, how are Ren and Nora doing?"

"Well they followed Russel when he went back to Orellia after the war, to rebuild and such. They really like it there, helping people in a way they don't have to kill, Nora's pregnant in fact. With twins."

Her mouth dropped at the news followed shortly by laughter. "Twins! How's he ever going to get any peace now?"

"Ruby this is Nora we're talking about. Ren doesn't get any peace as is." He smiled at the thought of his friends. "They're supposed to be sending out wedding invitations soon, I expect we'll all be invited."

"It's about time. I was beginning to think they would never get hitched."

"Yeah… Did you hear Cardin got married? He decided to keep it all private because his parents don't approve of his partner, but he sent photos, I should show you some time. I haven't heard from the other two but Cardin says their doing fine."

She hadn't noticed before with the rain and all but it was now clear that the liquid falling down his face were not only from the falling droplets. "Jaune... are you okay?"

He paused giving himself a moment to take a breath before speaking. "No, not particularly. Ruby… she missed so much, so many things. It's not fair, she didn't deserve to die."

Ruby walked forward and embraced him pulling him close. He tightened his arms around her back as he sought the warmth and comfort her body provided.

Ruby slowly and methodically brushed Jaune's hair, doing her best to sooth the sobbing man.

"It's okay Jaune. I'm here for you."

These events were no different from last year, or the year before that, or the year before that. She heard it from Weiss that come this day Jaune would always break down without fail. He had always blamed himself for her death, he was her commander, her partner, her best friend and lover, and she died under his watch. The anniversary of her death only opened old wounds that they all wished, but try as they might, couldn't heal.

**So a little backstory on this fic. I first started and wrote the majority of this fic back in the beginning of June, about two weeks or so before I wrote and released _Family._ A bad combination of work, school, and crippling writers block prevented me from finishing this, and only recently was I able to finish actually writing the story. So due to this you might have noticed a change in writing style within multiple sections of of the fic. If you don't like the different styles write a review, I always enjoy reading your opinions, whether they be good or bad. And as a final note, I originally wanted to take this story a bit further, have a more satisfying ending, but writer's block has once again reared its ugly head and I am left to where the story is now. And even that is after a lot of editing of my orgional draft to make this well enough to finally be put out. So if I am ever hit with inspiration again, I will most definitely write and add a proper ending.**


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